DNF at 50%. Best way to describe this is porn with barely a plot. Felt like fanfiction written by a 13 year old. Also, if you have to tell me in your narrative, "hence, why this very important plot point exists" I just can't trust you to be entertaining anymore.
I love a good forced proximity/marriage trope, but this was very immature.
Even the bad stuff wasn't laughable enough to keep me going.

"All the stars in the sky are not as bright as my love for you."

I immediately fell in love with Isolde's character, she was the take no nonsense, I'm going to do what I want, and I am comfortable and okay with all parts of me type. Not to mention she was a total warrior. She isn't about to let a man tell her what she should think. I struggled a bit with this one because of the world building, it's always my least favorite part of a series, I just want to jump into the story. Yet, I think it was an interesting story, I also really liked that we got the story Isolde grew up with and then the reality according to those who live under Adrian.

I think the sexual attraction and tension between Isolde and Adrian was on point from the moment they met. They also have amazing banter. It was fun to watch the relationship develop and watch each of them start to trust each other a little more. I think this book had some shocking twists and turns along the way and a few obvious plot moments that should have been a surprise but were more obvious. I really think the story started to pick up at about sixty percent and had me super interested in finding out what happened next.

I think this one wrapped up enough that I didn't feel the normal anger at a cliffhanger ending haha. I did kind of feel like some elements were rushed because we spent extra time on the relationship between Isolde and Adrian. Like we get this character that comes out of nowhere, but before that we were only focused on Adrian making Isolde feel like she could trust what he said. I look forward to seeing what the author does next though. ( )

3.5 Stars. ( )

This was disappointing. I didn't feel anything for this. I wasn't invested in the plot, the politics, or the protagonists. ( )

A relatively entertaining enemies to lovers story of a princess forced to marry a vampire. Good tension building with a good amount of spice (who am I kidding there was a lot of spice lol). A good beginning for this series with interesting creatures (outside of vampires) and magic. A good fantasy romance worth the read. If you aren't a fan of a touch of plot with your spice then you can skip this one. For me it wasn't a bad read. ( )